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Anvil Press Receives the ABPBC’s Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award 2013

April 5th, 2013

Crammed into a tiny office on East First Avenue in Vancouver is a small press with an unflinching vision: to publish contemporary Canadian literature with a decidedly urban sensibility. One could say that Anvil Press is representative of the shift BC publishing has taken over the last two decades away from its roots in pioneer stories, First Nations culture and BC history to publishing that is edgy and commanding, national in scope as well as vital to the British Columbia experience. Abundantly energetic and deeply committed to Canada’s literature, Brian Kaufman is a daring publisher and it is our honour to recognize him. Brian will accept the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award at the Association of Book Publishers of BC Awards Dinner on April 18th, 2013.

Founded in 1990 by Brian Kaufman, Anvil Press has produced important books such as: Vancouver Noir: Vancouver 1930-1960, Afflictions & Departures, Stolen, A Room in the City: Photographs by Gabor Gasztonyi, Exit, and Heroines. These titles and more have been nominated for prestigious awards including the Giller, Canada’s most influential fiction prize; the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, our largest literary non-fiction prize; a Governor General’s Award for translation; the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction; the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature; the Acorn-Plantos Award for poetry, and just this year the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award in Manitoba. Anvil Press titles have
also won the City of Victoria Butler Prize, the City of Vancouver Book Award, a 2011 ReLit Award (short fiction category), and more.

With only three staff persons, Anvil, a press known for its quality books and unconventional literary work, produces ten to twelve titles a year, several making bookstore and regional bestseller lists. In the 90s, they managed to also run and then publish the winners of the 3-Day Novel contest. One of those titles, Small Apartments, has just been released with prominent actors such as Billy Crystal in the cast. The team, led by Kaufman, also produces the literary magazine, subTerrain, whose byline, Strong Words for a Polite Nation, lays out their literary intention. National and local in its vision, Anvil remains committed to its East Vancouver roots, and doesn’t shy away from work from the wrong side of the tracks: it’s a formula that is working for them and for our regional and national literature.

The Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award is presented as deserved to an active BC book publishing company that has, in recent times, earned the respect and applause of the community of publishers for a specific publishing project, an extraordinary contribution to the BC publishing community, and/or its extended commitment to excellence in publishing. Jim Douglas was founder of J. J. Douglas Publishers, which became Douglas & McIntyre.

For more information contact Margaret Reynolds, ABPBC Executive Director, tel: 604-684- 0228, email: Margaret@books.bc.ca.

The ABPBC Awards Dinner is sponsored by the BC BookWorld Society, Friesen Printers, Hemlock Printers and Rhino Print Solutions